Life After
by Lore55
Summary: Her people had a belief about death. It said that when you finally reach the end of your life you are reborn into the Great Stories you knew in it. She was fairly sure she wasn't supposed to remember as much as she did. Then again she had been fairly sure that hair was not naturally pink. It seemed she was being proven wrong all over the place. SI, soul replacement.
1. Where one life ends, another begins

**Hey there, first story I'm publishing on here, hope you guys like it.  
**

**Story inspired by Darkpetal16's Sakura.  
**

**I don't own anything.**

* * *

The first time she woke up it had been disorienting, as it would have been for anyone in her situation. For a long time she had laid still, the familiar sights, sounds, and scents of a hospital invading her frighteningly dull sense as she stared upwards into light that should have been painfully bright. That had been the third clue that the body she was in was not her own.

The first had been the metal pole that, some time ago, had seen fit to stick itself through her abdomen and destroy several internal organs while the ceiling of the subways crumbled around her, earth shaking and people screaming.

The second had been the warm, welcoming light that had enveloped her as she stepped through the gates of the graveyard beside her brother, leaving behind a tomb stone engraved with her name and a crowd of weeping friends and family.

Off to her side the heart rate monitor called out the time of a pulse that should not have existed. The girl took a deep breath to test her lungs, extra oxygen pumped in through the breathing tubes that had been wrapped around her face.

Beats were counted in her mind and she tried to raise an arm. The mental order was obeyed, and a short, thin limb appeared in her vision. It was certainly not her own. For one it lacked the ink that had marked the inside of the forearms for most of her thirty one years. The small hand that responded when she told it to twist was without the lines that age brought, no longer tough with scars and callouses built out of years of work. The smooth, pale skin confirmed her suspicions and the girl closed her eyes. It would figure that this had happened to her.

She closed her eyes and breathed deeply, calming the immediate panic and fear for the future. She let her arm drop and slowly relaxed. She wasn't surprised, not really, not in the core of it. Her people had a belief that when they died and at last found their way to the afterlife they would be reborn into the stories of old and lived there instead.

It would appear that her new life started a few years in.

_Well, _She thought as the door opened_, let's see how much trouble I can cause._

* * *

When her people spoke of joining the Great Tales she doubted that those who did were supposed to remember so vividly all they knew of them from beforehand. One more abnormality to add to her ever growing list of them.

It might have helped if she hadn't near-feinted when she caught the green eyed reflection in the glasses of her doctor, but the discovery of who she now was had her head reeling in a very unpleasant manner. She hoped that it had just been the glasses playing tricks on her, but was well aware it might not have been.

The girl turned her head to the side, catching the reflection of a child in the screen of her monitors. A grimace appeared. She was right.

* * *

Parents were a foreign concept to the girl. Certainly she knew what they were, had had figures that mimicked them in her past life. She was even aware through old, faded memories that there had been a time, when she was very young, where she lived with her own. That had been long, long ago.

The couple that rushed into her room not five minutes after the doctors left were nothing like those distant figures she remembered, yet the warmth in their eyes was the exact same. The same as she had received from her adoptive family.

It made her heart hurt to remember that it wasn't directed at her, but at the daughter that she had taken the place of.

The man took one look at her and burst into tears, brown eyes hiding behind his sleeve as his wife completely bypasses him, appearing at the girls side with almost abnormal speed. There was a flurry of words bombarding her, questions to her health, her head. It was a relief that they were spoke in a language she actually understood or things might have been more difficult than she was sure that they were already going to be.

The sight of the two parents also put out any doubt that may have still been lingering the corners of her mind in regards to her current possession.

Against the doctors orders Catherine tried to sit up, wincing when the world around her spun into a blur and a dull throbbing made itself known on the side of her head. The woman slid forwards, wrapping an arm around her now-small shoulders and helping her to sit up. The world slowly slid back into focus, blurry outlines coming to clarity that was both lower in quality for her eyes and higher in visibility for the lighting, further messing up her mental perception.

"Sakura, are you alright?" the mother asked, hand still placed firmly between her daughters shoulder blades. She stared blankly for a moment before remembering that that was who she was now. Sakura.

Information was the first thing she would need to manage her current situation, what better way to get it than to ask?

"What happened?" the girl asked, reaching up to touch the painfully area behind her ear, above the Parietal and Temporal bones. It was far too sensitive to be undamaged, and bit of probing revealed there to be a series of stitches that crossed the suture. That kind of injury could be damaging for mental functions, hit hard enough it might be fatal. Is that why she was here and not a newborn, lacking in memory or motor functions? If so what had happened that would land a child, voice high and hair soft, in a hospital with that kind of damage?

From the pain in her head she was guessing concussion. From the concern being displayed and the doctor's surprise at her waking she guessed that it had had consciousness away for some time, at least a day.

"You don't remember?" the man asked, making his way to the girl, Sakura's, side. Her head shook and she immediately regretting the decision, paling as a sudden wave of vertigo hit. It was all she could do not to throw up.

"You fell," the blonde woman explained quietly, "You hit your head on a rock in the park. You've been asleep for three weeks."

Three weeks. That was how long it had taken them to excavate the fallen tunnels and retrieve her body, those of several others, and bury them in the quake churned earth. She wondered idly if Sakura's heart had stopped and that was what had drawn her to the new form.

Strong arms wrapped around her and the girl started, looking up to see the face of Sakura's father as he held her against his chest tentatively, as if one wrong move and she would break.

"We didn't know if you were going to wake up," he sniffed, and girl smiled, patting his arm in a gesture of comfort. She couldn't more much thanks to the various tubes and wires attached to her arms.

In child-like innocence she spoke. "I couldn't sleep forever," she told him. The parents smiled at her but it wasn't fooling her. She read their expressions better than any children could, recognizing the feelings that were poorly hidden, especially for people with the training she knew that they had. Fear, sadness, bitterness and relief all shone down at her.

A thought occurred as the girl remembered something about Sakura from her previous knowledge. "Uhm…" the two smiled when she made it clear she wished to speak.

"Yes dear?" the mother asked.

"What about school?"

The father started to laugh.

* * *

_"I would love to believe that when I die I will live again, that some thinking, feeling, remembering part of me will continue. But as much as I want to believe that, and despite the ancient and worldwide cultural traditions that assert an afterlife, I know of nothing to suggest that it is more than wishful thinking." _  
_ ― Carl Sagan, Billions & Billions: Thoughts on Life and Death at the Brink of the Millennium _


	2. Preperations

**Second chapter up at last! **

**Still not in ownership of Naruto. **

**Feedback is appreciated.**

* * *

She really was too young for this shit.

She almost always was. Too young, that is. Too young to join the military, too young to have had so many accidents, too young to be without parents.

According to the news she was too young to die.

As she stared into unfamiliar green eyes she couldn't help but think that she was too young to deal with this.

A 23 year old woman looked into the mirror. 12 year old Sakura Haruno looked back out.

The woman contorted her face into a grimace, the too young face in the mirror mimicking her expression.

In her mind she was cursing her fate for all she was worth, wondering what deity she had managed to piss off to end up in such a situation. She twisted her face in different angles, trying to trick her reflection into revealing that it was false. There was no such luck, and at last she accepted her new place in the world as Sakura.

Perhaps she should have further questioned her situation, searched for hidden camera's or tried to pull out roots from her now-long hair, it just hadn't worked like that.

_Reality is only our own perception of the world around us. If my perception is that I'm somehow a ninja then I can't change that without possibly illusioning myself further. _

_And this is what I get for taking psychology._

A search of the room revealed the well-known red dress, which the girl quickly slipped into. She had never understood the logic of wearing a bright red dress as a ninja, but what could she do but go with it? She made a mental note to get more neutral gear later on, once she graduated. Near as she could tell she was close to graduation, though for what she knew it could be tomorrow or next month. All she could do was wait until the Hokage faces were painted and practice her techniques.

She had actually lucked out, with access to Sakura's memories as well as hers. All she needed to do was skim the material to remember what the pinkette had known before her apparent coma.

Her first day back in class had been an adventure, welcomed back by an abundant amount of concern on the part of one blond, and a more muted, antagonistic amount on another. It hadn't taken long to figure out the basic dynamics of the class, those that she hadn't already known.

Shikamaru, Naruto, Kiba, and Choji sat in the back of the class and got in trouble. Shino and Hinata sat in the front, quiet as church mice. She and Ino fought for the coveted seat next to Sasuke, who preferred to sit in a window seat in the middle row.

Except now she wasn't fighting with Ino and the blonde girl had the chair all to herself.

No, Sakura Haruno now sat between the Aburame and Hyuuga clan heirs, using their quiet to get her studying done. She had a lot to catch up on and a lot still to learn, and not near enough time for it all. She researched chakra, its pathways, how it was effected by outside forces and how it could affect things around it. She searched for information on history, techniques, and past events. The vigor with which she threw herself into her books was almost alarming.

She had caught the nearly concerned looks Ino had begun to throw her way.

It was almost a week since her return to class that Naruto was dragged in, tied up, and all were called up for the review of the graduation exam. It was a good thing there wasn't a written portion to the practice, as she wasn't sure she would be able to pass it.

She had practiced the clone, transformation, and switch out techniques in the time she wasn't reading and was relieved to find that even if she wasn't sure how to this body still remembered how to manipulate chakra, and her mind was quickly understanding as well.

They came easily, so well-practiced they were. All the others in the class passed just as easily. Everyone except Naruto, who got yelled at for his perverted jutsu. The transformation was ridiculous, truly, but, the girl had a hard time not laughing at it. It was simply so generic she couldn't help it.

Sakura returned to her seat between the quietest classmates she had and cracked her book open, eyes sliding to the pages. She had come to many ideas that she wanted to test, but first she had to make sure that they wouldn't end up killing her. For the second time.

The rest of the class passed the same as always, lectures that she only listened to with one ear and the boys getting yelled at. It wasn't until the end of class that Sakura put her book away and stood up, walking out with a mutter of thanks to Iruka, who watched her with worry. People had been doing that often, she was getting used to it.

The graduation test itself was coming up fast, and while she was sure she could pass it there was still a lot to be done.

* * *

After class was let out the next day Sakura went off searching for people. She had things needed doing, and now was the most opportune chance. The test had been announced for three days' time, which gave her a golden window of opportunity. Her first stop was with none other than the great, brooding avenger. She had little respect for him, at that moment, but her need to do this outweighed her personal feeling for the person he was at that moment.

The boy glanced up, a scowl on his face when she approached him, sitting on a pier that out looked a small pond. The girl ignored the look, stopping a few feet away. Taking a deep breathed she bowed low, long hair falling to obscure her face, but not her vision. Through strands of pink she saw surprise flicker in black eyes.

"I'm sorry," she blurted, and watched the surprise grow, "My behavior towards you hasn't always been the more respectful, or what I would like you to see of me. I hope that even if we never get to be anything more we can still be friends, eventually."

She straightened up and looked down at the boy, waiting for him to say something. His ever stoic face was broken with his confusion, and after a few minutes he nodded to show he understood what she was saying.

Taking that to be as good as she was going to get she spun on her heel and took off a swift march, bound for her next target. A blonde, this time.

* * *

When she opened the door to the flower shop and made her way to the front desk she was met by a familiar man, blue eyes staring down at her. Sakura, hesitated, one hand going behind her to grip the space just above her elbow in an age old habit of shyness.

"Sakura," Inoichi greeted her, "What can I help you with?"

For a moment she wondered how he had known she needed help, before remembering that the Yamanaka clan read people for a living.

"I was wondering if Ino was around? I need to talk to her. It's important…"

A voice called an old nickname, and insult, from off to her side and the pinkette turned to see the blonde girl standing there, holding a small bouquet of various flowers. Cornflower blue eyes met green and a frown appeared.

"What are you doing here, forehead?" she asked, and Sakura pursed her lips. Inoichi took that moment to make his escape.

"I came here because there's something I need to tell you," the girl explained, watching the former friend walk past her and start wrapping up the flowers. She took a quick lungful of air, finding these situations to be stressful. "I give up."

Ino nearly dropped the flowers on the floor.

There was a startled 'what?' and Sakura nodded, meeting Ino's eyes.

"We're almost kunoichi, which means putting our lives on the line and risking everything. I know it probably won't happen for a while, but when we get put in dangerous situations, if something were to happen to you…" blue eyes softened and Ino sighed, putting the bouquet down.

"I get it. So what, you're just giving up on Sasuke then?" Ino asked, preparing the flowers for what Sakura assumed to be a home delivery.

She nodded. "Yeah, you can have him if you still want him. I just want us to stop fighting over Sasuke when there are more important things in life."

"What's gotten into you?" Ino asked, giving her a very odd look. All Sakura could do was shrug.

"I figured some stuff out when I was asleep. I don't know, it just doesn't feel right…Can we be friends again?" she asked, hopefully.

A smile bloomed on Ino's face. "Sure. Now come help me with these!"

* * *

By the time she was finished talking to and catching up with Ino it was too late to go to her last stop, so she decided to put it off until there were no longer stars in the sky and she wasn't asleep on her feet. It was a good thing that she was, because then she could go straight to sleep and not have any time to think.

Thinking only lead to remembering all she had lost, an activity she did not feel like doing right then.

* * *

_There is no pain so great as the memory of joy in present grief._

_Aeschylus_


	3. Final Apology

**Third Chapter!  
**

**RyOuKaMaGI: I'm glad that you liked it! Thanks for reviewing, I appreciate your taking the time to do that!**

* * *

The next day the girl-who-was-now-Sakura bid her mildly concerned parents and went out into the new world, the ribbon in her hair replaced with a headband that marked her ninja. It was still disorienting and worrying for her to navigate the area, to even live after the earth quake had caused her death in the last life.

The village was, luckily, wide and open, with views of the sky and towering trees that were as much a part of the place as the houses, which looked relatively normal in comparison to where she used to be, and ranged to the odd, traditional appearance she had once only seen in pictures. The people were diverse in the sense of their hair and eyes but she had yet to meet anyone of a darker skin tone, which lead her to the conclusion that most of them lived in Kumo. Instead the village of foliage was filled with strangely colored hair and unusual eyes. From red to green, orange to blue, yellow to purple, all in an assortment of people with various occupation.

For all there were so many shinobi there were also many civilians that supported them, selling weapons, clothing, food, and lodging to the ninja that protected them.

All of this she noted as she walked, hands clasped behind her back and bow in her hair. Being twelve again was one of the weirdest experiences she had ever been a part of, and she got the feeling it would only get worse the more time she spent there.

On her way she spent some of the money her parents gave her every week, her allowance, on something to eat, picking up a double order and going on her way to the school. For the first time in forever there was a skip in her step. The first steps she needed to take to get to where she wanted to be had been taken, and there was only one more person she hand to apologize to before she moved on.

It was stressful, as she had never been very good at planning, but at least she had some idea of what she was doing, and if nothing else the things she was learning were more interesting than a lot of other studying she'd done in her life. Pre-life? Existence?

She could figure out the correct pronouns later, she decided as she walked into the academy and to the classroom she was supposed to meet the rest of the graduates at. She wasn't at all surprised to see Ino already there, as she had left earlier than intended and taken her sweet time getting there. She also wasn't surprised to see Naruto and Sasuke sitting next to each other, glaring in opposite directions while Tobio, a boy from one of the other classes, snickered in the row in front of them.

Sakura walked over, her bag swinging off of her shoulder and onto the seat next to Tobio, directly in front of the little blond.

"Morning Naruto, Sasuke, Ino," she greeted, leaning back against the desk. The others looked at her, both blonds smiling cheerfully.

"Hey, Sakura!" Naruto nearly chirped, perfectly chipper.

"Forehead, I thought you weren't going to show up," Ino teased, and Sakura smiled good naturedly.

"I couldn't leave my favorite flower girl to face the future alone could I, Ino-pig?" she joked. Sasuke had glanced at her, which was more acknowledgment than he usually gave, so it was all good. The girl looked up at the blond boy, her legs swinging as she sat fully on the desk.

"Hey, Naruto?"

He perked up at her addressing him, curiosity painting his face. "Yeah?"

"Can I talk to you after team assignments?" she asked, watching the light over take his expression.

"Sure!" he nearly shouted, "Where do you want to go? On a date or-"

"I just need to talk to you," she corrected, voice lilting with a laugh, "It's not a date, sorry. We probably won't have time for that kind of thing once we're officially ninja."

Naruto seemed to deflate, but only a little.

"Alright," he still agreed, and soon enough they were cut off by the entrance of Iruka. Team assignments went as the girl remembered them, and when her name was called with Sasuke's she smiled apologetically at Ino, who just waved it off. With their rivalry over the girl was immensely nicer. Naruto still questioned the decision and their teacher was still very, very late, which gave her the time she needed to talk to Naruto when they braked for lunch.

She lead the way to one of the benches outside, offering him the other serving of the fruit cups she's bought earlier. Naruto thanked her, and asked what she wanted to talk about, looking as sly as a twelve year old with baby fat on his cheeks could.

The girl leaned back on the bench, wondering how to start. Point blank she supposed would be best

"I've been mean to you," she held up her hand to keep him from interrupting, "I know I have, and it was wrong of me. You never did anything to deserve it, it wasn't fair to do that and just follow the adults example without questioning it. So what I'm saying is… I'm sorry. And I really want to be your friend."

She watched Naruto's face the entire time, and when it lit bright enough that the sun looked dull she felt both happy and guilty. Guilty because such a bright person had been treated to terribly and happy that he smiled like that because of her.

"We definitely be friends!" Naruto agreed quickly, causing her to laugh for the first time since she'd died.

"I'm glad," she told him, tearing the top off her fruit cup, "Now eat your lunch so we can go meet out teacher," she instructed, and the boy hurried to comply before he stopped, turning suddenly very pale. Sakura watched him, brows furrowing in concern before she sprinted off, shouting an apology with his hands over his butt.

For a second she could only stare, confused, before she remembered.

_Sour milk. _

Wincing in sympathy for her teammate the girl packed up, shouldering her bag and heading back inside. There she took a seat next to Sasuke and pulled out a medical text book, starting to read it before getting stuck. She had to pull out the matching dictionary and a piece of paper, simplifying and translating it as best she could. She was going to need a lot of help with this, unfortunately.

When Naruto came back he managed to last about ten minutes of quiet before his leg started shaking and his mouth started moving, leading to an argument with Sasuke that she had to break up with a chop to both their heads with two-inch thick book.

After that she ended up talking with Naruto, mostly speculating about their late sensei and talking about what he'd done to the Hokage heads.

"Well everyone would see what I did," he tried to defend when she brought it up.

"Yeah, and you'd get caught and screamed at. Do you like getting in trouble or something?" she asked, watching him pout and look away.

"No! But if they would pay attention to me," he waved his hands in gesture, "then I wouldn't do it!"

Sakura arched a brow. "So negative attention it better than no attention at all?" she asked.

Naruto paused, looking down and shrugging. "I guess."

Sakura almost hit herself for being so insensitive. "Still, the Hokage faces? I don't even know how you got up there," she continued before smoothly sliding something in, "You know, you look a lot like the Fourth."

Naruto looked up at her, surprised. "I do?"

"Yeah," she nodded, "Your eyes and hair, you look a lot like him, just different facial structures," she explained.

Sasuke snorted. "Isn't it kind of insulting to them to compare this looser to the Fourth Hokage?"

"What did you just sa-"

"Isn't it kind of stupid to insult someone over something so petty?" Sakura defended, startling both of them. The old on might have thought that avenger was the greatest thing since sliced bread, but this one was going to take him down a few pegs if she could.

Naruto's eyes caught the clock then and he groaned. "Where's our sensei?" he whined.

Sakura shrugged. "No idea. He'll have to be here soon right? You don't think he forgot us do you?"

"He's a jonin, he wouldn't," Sasuke tried to dismiss, though he too sounded unsure.

Naruto stood up and jogged to the front of the room. "Well for being late I'll make him regret it!" the boy decided, taking the chalk eraser from the front of the room and going to set it up on top of the door.

Sasuke snorted. "As if that'll work," he scoffed. Sakura hit him with her book again, causing the boy to hiss a yelp.

"You may be surprised," she predicted, drawing her legs up to cross.

Not five minutes after Naruto had taken his seat again did the door open, admitting one Kakashi Hatake. The eraser fell down, striking his already grey hair and raising a small cloud while Naruto cracked up. Sakura snickered quietly and Sasuke stared in disbelief.

Kakashi let the eraser fall down from his head, looking at the children before he spoke. "Hmmm. My first impression is… I hate you. Meet me on the roof," with a poof he was gone, leaving an outraged Naruto and an Irate Sasuke. Sakura just shook her head, stowing everything in her bag before standing up and stretching her arms above her head.

"Come on boy," she started the walk, "let's go see where this leads us.

* * *

"Never ruin an apology with an excuse." ― Benjamin Franklin


End file.
